SAETER LIFE. 17& 



heartli, a table, and a coarse bed, is the living room; the 

 inner one is the dairy, containing the cheeses and the im- 

 plements used in the manufacture of them. 



Often several, belonging to different proprietors, form a 

 group in a mountain hollow ; sometimes you see them by 

 the shore of a tarn, Within a few miles from Christiania 

 is Frogner Saeter, the property of Herr T. J. Hefty e, 

 Consul of the United States, and President of the Turist- 

 forening or Tourist Society, an association formed to foster 

 a taste in the country for mountain exploration, to facili- 

 tate which they have, at considerable expense, had moun- 

 tain roads made and improved, and huts erected in remote 

 localities in which members of the society may find shelter 

 and rest on their extensive tours. 



Frogner Saeter is situated some 1,700 feet above the 

 level of the sea. The approaches to it are through a large 

 and dark forest by a road made at great expense by the 

 owner. From the saeter a magnificent view may be had. 

 Another mountain lodge belonging to the same proprietor 

 is Sarabraoten, situated in a wild region in a romantic spot, 

 overlooking a picturesque lake. His love of wild scenery has 

 prompted him to build at both of these places houses like 

 those constructed in the olden time; but to see saeter life 

 in its reality the traveller must go much further afield. 

 In most of the published journals of tourists in Norway 

 may be found accounts of visits made by them to saeters. 

 An interesting chapter in Du Chaillu's volume, entitled 

 The Land of the Midnight Sun, is devoted to an account of 

 a visit which he made for some days to a saeter in the 

 Valdai. 



' In the midst of the mountains/ he writes, ' Far away 

 from the farms, by the shores of lonely lakes and rivers, or 

 on the slopes of ridges beyond the limits of the growth of 

 grain, are the saeters. These are mountain houses or huts 

 built of logs or of rough stones, where during the summer 

 months the people of a farm come to pasture their cattle, 

 for in the midst of this great wilderness of rocks there are 

 many spots covered with aromatic grass, which gives a rich 



